Saddle Testing Principles?

[Hawker]

I've been testing saddles for the last couple of months and wonder if there is any way to determine "why" a specific saddle doesn't work?

There are a couple of saddles that I knew wouldn't work within five miles (Flite) but there are lots of others that seem to work just fine for the first thirty or forty miles and then start to give me problems...like the Aliante. Presently I am trying out a 130 Phenom. Even though it is the hardest saddle I've ever tried, it seems pretty comfortable until that forty mile mark...then a bit of butt pain sets in. Successive hard days might be a challenge.

I'm a small guy at 130lbs and around 110mm on the Specialized Butt-o-meter, does that mean that a 142 width saddle would never work for me...or depends?

Generally speaking I ride all my saddles perfectly level unless there is some numbness up front and then I may lower the nose a tiny bit. I've also found saddles with cut outs to be very effective for me, doing away completely with penile pain and numbness.

So...is there any way to pinpoint whether saddle pain pertains to:

a. The width of the saddle?
b. The lack of or too much padding?
c. The overall shape of the saddle (flat or with a hammock in the middle)?

My workshop wall is beginning to look like a saddle testing headquarters.

Thanks.

[tannhauser]

Short answer: no.

[67-59]

Wish I could help out, but like you, I have a who's who of saddles sitting in my garage. Early on, I had my best success with the San Marco Aspide - a really narrow, flat saddle. But I got numbness up front that I could never get rid of once the mileage went up, so I started looking for other, similar shaped saddles. I tried a couple that looked pretty much the same and had similar dimensions, but always seemed to cause different problems. In fact, the more similar they looked, the more different they felt.:help:

I've pretty much settled on the Fizik Aliante...mostly because it has turned out to be the least of all the evils. It never gives me numbness up front, and while I sometimes get sores by my sit bones when the mileage and frequency go up a lot, I can usually mitigate it with a healthy dose of chamois cream (Assos, but thinking of trying the "R" one).

I'm thinking of giving the Antares or one of the Prologos a try, but I'm a bit gun-shy....


Edit: tannhauser said it a lot more succinctly than I did....

[BurritoGuru]

Fizik has a concept strategy that helps you select a saddle based on your riding style. I took that plus my body type to select a saddle. All my bikes have Selle San Marco Regals.

http://www.fizik.it/spineconcept/


Good Luck

[DjTristal]

According to BG Saddle Width System you should be using a saddle in the range of 143-155mm wide. I had the same problem until I tried out a wider saddle because like you I had a 110mm sit bone width riding on saddles that were not wide enough. I am a smaller guy too at 140lbs and 5'5'. I have been using Selle Italia SLR Super Flow 145 for 3 months and I haven't complained since. The majority of the saddles out there are 130-135mm and it made me believe that I had to be within that range. The reality is that the only way I can be comfortable on my saddle was to rest on my sit bones. It won't hurt to try a wider saddle.

[pdmtong]

Short answer: no.

+1

specialized ass-o-meter sas I am a 143mm yet I prefer 130mm arione/phenom all day long

[lenny]

If you find a method, post it. I've tried 5 saddles in the past 2 months without much luck.

[MattTuck]

Well, let me tell you a little story. It starts off with the short answer being "no" but then we close our eyes, and imagine a wonderful future not too far from today. There will be saddle specialists, just like there are fit specialists today. They will look at your ass for 15 minutes, feel your sit bones and then divine the saddle you should get.

Just like a phrenologist, but for your ass.

Only advice I have is to find a shop that does saddle demo's. no reason to pay for saddles that don't fit.

[Hawker]

Well, let me tell you a little story. It starts off with the short answer being "no" but then we close our eyes, and imagine a wonderful future not too far from today. There will be saddle specialists, just like there are fit specialists today. They will look at your ass for 15 minutes, feel your sit bones and then divine the saddle you should get.

Just like a phrenologist, but for your ass.

Only advice I have is to find a shop that does saddle demo's. no reason to pay for saddles that don't fit.

Hmm, so would you get a degree from some school in Boulder to become a saddle specialist? Can you get a student loan to cover it?

[jlwdm]

Go to Lavamagazine.com under Gear Sea Otter day 3 and see the technology Paraic and Faster are using to work on fit with saddles.

http://lavamagazine.com/gear/sea-otter-day-three-from-leather-shoes-to-new-speedplays/#axzz1t4NG8R2l

Jeff

[Elefantino]

I don't understand yet envy those of you who've used the same saddles for years after years, like Flites or Brookses.

Just when my butt gets used to a saddle it seems to begin not liking it anymore. B-17. Flite. O2. BGv1.0, 2.0, Era, Aspide, Fly, Regal, Concor, Scratch ...

The current but soon-to-be-former favorite is the Glider.

Sucks to have a bony ass, doesn't it?

[eddief]

after a few years on Brooks B17, we switched to WTB Pure V saddles. I swear, to look at the Pure V, I would never have chosen it. But someone suggested it was a good sub for the Brooks...and it is for me. Not recommending it for you, but just sayin no easy way.

Need a bike shop invention with a merry go round of many saddles. You push a button and get to try each one for a certain period of time. Bet you could eliminate many in just seconds...and then focus on the ones that fit your "ball park."

[azrider]

Short answer: no.

This.

I too enjoyed riding the cut out on the Toupe but found that after the 40+/3hr saddle time, i'd be left with sore spots on my sit bones for rest of the day making consecutive days difficult.

My latest bike came with a saddle that I thought i'd just try out before swapping but have ended up putting 4+ hour rides in with no numbness, or aching sit bones post ride. Needless to say it's now my go to.

It's all going to depend on your own butt and what it likes.

[Louis]

I was in "saddle search mode" a few years ago after SI discontinued the model that had been perfect for me. Then, for a few months, every saddle I tried told me "It's not you, it's me." This was not very helpful, but I eventually found something that worked.

About all I can say is, keep trying.

[EricEstlund]

I'm not discounting the importance of a comfortable saddle, but I will caution that if you are cycling through new seats and can't find a winner it may be due to other fit issues. The saddle is just one of your contact points, and if the others are out of whack it may just be where you are noticing the imbalance.

[Louis]

Are you using decent shorts or bibs? No $25 Nashbar specials. No "underwear under the shorts." (Don't laugh, I've heard of at least one guy who tried to do that.)

[veloduffer]

It's trial and error mostly. I had been using a Vetta SL/SP saddles on all my bikes (7 of them) for over 20 yrs and I've stocked up a few backups. I've tried others with similar shapes (Ritchey, San Marco, Specialized) but none fit quite as well.

By accident I found a new champion - Selle Italia SL (a 143mm version of the SLR). This one even has a cutout. I happened upon it because it came with my Parlee. Dang comfortable and have now switched all my Vetta saddles.

Once you find a saddle that works, I strongly recommend on stocking up on a few so when they discontinue the model, you won't have to go through the search again.

[oldpotatoe]

I've been testing saddles for the last couple of months and wonder if there is any way to determine "why" a specific saddle doesn't work?

There are a couple of saddles that I knew wouldn't work within five miles (Flite) but there are lots of others that seem to work just fine for the first thirty or forty miles and then start to give me problems...like the Aliante. Presently I am trying out a 130 Phenom. Even though it is the hardest saddle I've ever tried, it seems pretty comfortable until that forty mile mark...then a bit of butt pain sets in. Successive hard days might be a challenge.

I'm a small guy at 130lbs and around 110mm on the Specialized Butt-o-meter, does that mean that a 142 width saddle would never work for me...or depends?

Generally speaking I ride all my saddles perfectly level unless there is some numbness up front and then I may lower the nose a tiny bit. I've also found saddles with cut outs to be very effective for me, doing away completely with penile pain and numbness.

So...is there any way to pinpoint whether saddle pain pertains to:

a. The width of the saddle?
b. The lack of or too much padding?
c. The overall shape of the saddle (flat or with a hammock in the middle)?

My workshop wall is beginning to look like a saddle testing headquarters.

Thanks.

-Have you had a really good bike fit?

-Find a shop that has saddle test ride programs..most decent ones do.

[Kontact]

At our shop we've found that certain saddles, especially the SMPs, are so angle sensitive that we only like to mount them in the fit room.

The saddle I sell has a "sweet spot", and sometimes people just plain sit in the wrong spot (too far forward).

So when testing saddles, you really need to be willing to move the saddle around before you know it won't work.


I would strongly agree that Specialized's fitting method has very little application to selecting saddles. Almost no one sits on the part of the sit bones Specialized measures.

[lenny]

Anyone try the Competitive Cyclist demo program?

http://www.competitivecyclist.com/za/CCY?PAGE=DEMO_ABOUT&BRAND.ID=118

Worth the money?

[1centaur]

Most notable to me in the OP was "I always ride with my saddle level."

While fitters will probably start you with a level saddle, a ton of pros are slightly nose up and that's where I eventually found my comfort zone on saddles with a slight dip. I agree with Kontact about SMP's having a very narrow zone. I always advise people to adjust curved saddle tilt a little before they declare a saddle unfit.

To further complicate the issue, different chamois thickness and different saddle heights (including amount of saddle compression) can change things a millimeter here or there, so getting a pure comparison based on fit is tougher than it first appears.

IMO the major considerations are degree of padding (if a hard saddle just doesn't work for you, accept that in future candidates), shape front to back, and shape side to side. Saddles that have a significant dome in the middle, exactly where you don't want it, never made sense, but curved saddles worked better than cut-outs for me. I also prefer relatively abrupt transitions from front to back so the body knows exactly where to be and it's easier to perch on the sit bones rather than lounge on the soft tissue near by.

[Onno]

Anyone try the Competitive Cyclist demo program?

http://www.competitivecyclist.com/za/CCY?PAGE=DEMO_ABOUT&BRAND.ID=118

Worth the money?

Thanks for this link. Great idea. I was just about to ask how one even goes about testing saddles, when it seems as though one has to buy any saddle one wishes to test, which is a pain in the ass, money and ass wise.